


Leeches

by AshsHorrorShow



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Drabble, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Loneliness, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 10:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshsHorrorShow/pseuds/AshsHorrorShow
Summary: They were both just a couple of leeches, weren't they?





	Leeches

Jervis stared at the man sitting across the table from him curiously, trying to see if he could glean something from the man’s face or eyes. Something that would answer the question bouncing around in his head. He had yet to be successful, but he was going to keep trying. He was sure he could get something soon. 

He had been staring for so long that he was actually rather surprised that Jonathan hadn’t snapped at him about it yet. After all, Jonathan, in Jervis’s humble opinion, could be awfully prickly at times. It seemed to him if someone so much as breathed in the taller man’s direction, they were susceptible to a caustic comment or two from Jonathan, should he be in a particularly foul mood at that moment, which, unfortunately, was most of the time. So how he was being spared despite the fact that he was rather rudely staring at the other owlishly was beyond him.

He noted the dark bags under the man’s eyes. Perhaps the other man was simply too tired to fight or notice. Then again, those bags seemed to have a permanent residence on Jonathan’s face, as Jervis had never seen them not shading the underneath of Jonathan’s eyes. Maybe the lack of sleep attributed to his nasty temper. Jervis could relate to sleeping problems. Twittering thoughts inside his mind often prevented him from resting. Thoughts of Wonderland, Alice, and people with bat cowls who liked to tear down the happy, magical escape of fantasy and try to enforce the harsh, boring world of sanity. These were the types of thoughts he was plagued with at night.

Even when he could manage to get his brain to quiet down enough for him to get rest, his mind could still plague him. Dreams of snapping Jabberwocks and elusive bats and raining fists. He resisted the urge to shudder. Quite dreadful, indeed!

He highly doubted though that if Jonathan’s mind did plague him, he had the same thoughts and nightmares as Jervis. Jonathan had no imagination. He would never be able to think such unique and dreadful things. However, despite how different their minds probably were, Jervis wondered if he could help.

He had a drug that could be brewed into tea that could put one out like a light. He’d used it quite a few times himself. He could attest to it being quite helpful. He even knew the dose amounts and everything! It might not be healthy, but going without sleep wasn’t healthy either, so he was sure it balanced out somehow.

A part of him considered bringing it up right then and there. It would certainly help bring some conversation to this awfully silent table. But he quickly thought better of it. 

He’d tried to help Jonathan bunches of times in the past, and the man always growled and snapped at him, insisting that he was fine. Jervis didn’t think that was the case, but he had enough self-preservation skills within him to know not to push it. Besides, he couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to help himself. 

Now, if only the doctors back at Arkham were able to apply that same logic back on him.

Even if Jonathan was open-minded, he still couldn’t envision Jonathan reacting well to the subject of drugs, at least, when Jervis was talking about them. He’d only agreed to do this tea of sorts if he saw Jervis make the tea. And he meant that quite literally too. He had practically breathed down Jervis’s neck as the hatter prepared things, standing incredibly close. Even Jervis, who didn’t take much issue with personal space felt a little uncomfortable then.

Jonathan’s paranoia didn’t stretch just to drinks though. He also adamantly refused to wear a hat anywhere near Jervis, no matter how much Tetch cried and begged.

The lack of trust in him was unfair in Jervis’s mind. Okay, so many _one time_ Jervis had put a mind-control device in one of Jonathan’s hats. First of all, Jonathan wasn’t even under his control for that long. The Batman had made sure of that. And besides, Jervis had been doing it for Jonathan’s benefit! There was no way the man would’ve tried to see how magical and fantabulous the world of fantasy was unless he had done that! 

Besides, he thought he’d been a rather good sport about the whole thing. When Jonathan had fear gassed some of his henchmen, he had decided to let it pass, figuring that was a fair compensation. 

But all of this did lead to the question that had been bothering Jervis since the very beginning of this little tea party. If Jonathan didn’t seem to trust him, or hell, even like him, then why was he here? Why did he show up every now and again when Jervis invited him? He was the only rogue to ever do so. 

Hell, even Jonathan seemed to wonder the same thing. Every time Jervis said something that even vaguely annoyed him, he would hear the other man grumble, “Why do I even come here?” 

Part of him had suspected Jonathan wanted something, but Jonathan had never offered any propositions nor had he ever attacked or threatened Jervis. 

Once he had scratched that off his mental checklist, he wondered if perhaps Jonathan enjoyed his company more than he showed and that was why this was happening. But Jervis doubted it. After all, people didn’t tend to like Jervis and Jonathan didn’t tend to like people. 

Jervis couldn’t help but wonder though if the friend theory was right though, though perhaps in its most fundamental elements. 

Maybe, somewhere, subconsciously, Jonathan did long for human companionship of any kind, and he was willing to put up with someone he found obnoxious, simply because that person was the only one who would allow it. 

Maybe Jonathan was simply leeching off of Jervis’s friendliness to get a free meal, free tea, and just a tad bit of social interaction every now and then. It seemed plausible. 

The idea of Jonathan leeching off of him was depressing in a way, and Jervis knew that he probably should be angry at the idea, but he wasn’t. After all, he was a leech as well.

He actually had the wherewithal to admit that he was lonely. And even if Jonathan didn’t like his company, he could find himself enjoying Jonathan’s. The man was intelligent and the amount of work that went into his research was compelling. 

So maybe they were both leeches, simply putting up with one another for some mutual benefit.

Or maybe all of these theories were wrong and there was a whole different motivation behind it all. Jonathan, like many of the Gotham rogues, was an interesting character, after all. Their motives didn’t tend to be so black and white. 

Jervis decided he wasn’t going to think about it anymore. It was much too complicated and he prefered to live in the moment. 

So, beaming at Jonathan, who looked at him curiously, he raised a teacup in one hand and said, “You are a mighty interesting character, you know that, Jonathan Crane?” 

Jonathan threw him a confused look, scowling, “And where did that come from?”

“Oh, nowhere really. You offer no conversation, so I was simply left to think a few things through in my mind is all,” Jervis tittered, before taking a sip of his tea. 

“You know, if you want conversation, you should probably just say so…” Jonathan growled, annoyance creeping into his tone. However, he did surprise Jervis by going on about some crime the Joker and Harley Quinn had done, going over all the logistics of how it affected things for the other rogues and why the two of them failed.

Jervis listened on eagerly, nodding along and smiling. His smile grew even wider with interest when Jonathan began detailing what his next plans were going to be in the coming weeks. Apparently he plotted to target one of Joker and Harley’s holdings while they were down to steal some chemicals. 

Yes, Jonathan Crane was an interesting character indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> I... I don't really know what this is. The idea for this kind of just came to my mind and I decided to whip it up real quick. Writing in Jervis's perspective was pretty fun. I don't think I captured him completely right, but he was fun to try and do regardless. Quite a tricky character to get the hang of. I think this was vaguely inspired by the fact that I have been reading a bit of Jeph Loeb, and he usually seems to have Scarecrow and Mad Hatter together in his works. So... 
> 
> As always, critique is wanted and if you see a mistake, feel free to point it out. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, and have a great day!


End file.
